When you’ve been running 5.40s all weekend and leave on a final-round opponent who just blew the tires off in the semi’s and is about to run a 5.50-something, you’re probably going to win, and at Maple Grove Annie Whiteley absolutely was – for about 5 feet.
Then she found the cockpit enveloped in a cloud of tire smoke and could only look on helplessly as Phil Esz shot ahead for an easy win. “I left pretty low [6,400 rpm] and it still took the tire off,” she lamented. “Instantly. The 60-foot time was 1.23. [Crew chief] Mike [Strasburg] lowered the leave 100 rpm because I was already leaving so low, but maybe we should’ve lowered it 500. Who knows? All we were looking to do was repeat. Anything from .47 to .49 would’ve been fine…”
In her first appearance at historic Maple Grove Raceway in the rolling hills of Pennsylvania Amish country, Whiteley was locked in the 5.40s on two of three qualifying attempts and all three preliminary rounds of eliminations. Nestled into the No. 3 spot with an aggregate best of 5.46 at 268.92 mph (top speed of the meet), she faced returning veteran Kris Hool, who hadn’t been seen at an NHRA event in years, in the first round. She left first by a mile with a .061 reaction time that was, by far, her slowest all weekend, and went on to a lopsided win with another 5.4s, a 5.49 at 266.85 mph.
“Annie’s gotten really good on the lights since we went to this two-step,” Strasburg said, “.030s and .040s all the time and .020s when she really needs one.” Brainerd winner Bob McCosh learned that firsthand under the lights Saturday night when Whiteley beat him in round two, 5.49/266 to 5.46/265, with a .022 holeshot leave. Then Phil Burkart, making his only national event start this season for Jay Blake’s Follow A Dream team, narrowly fouled in the semi’s, sending the YNot team to its first national event final of 2024 with another great light (.025) and great run (5.47).
“That’s got to be the first time I’ve ever noticed the scoreboard when the other driver red-lighted,” said Whiteley, who moved up to fifth in the NHRA Top Alcohol Funny Car standings. “It hit me – ‘Oh, hey, I just won.’ Then the motor hit the [rev-limiter] chip and I thought, ‘What the hell are you looking at? Shift!’ “